China’s efforts to develop an independent aerospace industry and manufacture advanced aero-engines will drive rising market demand for high-end and new-type superalloys.

Known as the flower of industry, the aero-engine is one of the components with the highest technical content and manufacturing difficulty in the aviation industry. For aero-engines serving as aircraft power units, it is particularly critical that metallic structural materials feature light weight, high strength, high toughness, high temperature resistance, oxidation resistance and corrosion resistance — almost the most demanding performance requirements among all structural materials.

A superalloy refers to a metallic material that can operate for a long time at temperatures above 600℃ under certain stress conditions. Developed to meet the stringent material requirements of modern aero-engines, superalloys have become irreplaceable key materials for the hot-section components of aero-engines to this day. In advanced aero-engines, superalloys account for more than 50% of the total material usage.

In modern advanced aero-engines, superalloys make up 40%~60% of the engine’s total materials. In aero-engines, superalloys are mainly applied to four major hot-section components: combustors, guide vanes, turbine blades and turbine disks. They are also used for casings, rings, afterburners, tail nozzles and other parts.

Superalloys enjoy a wide range of applications in the energy sector.

In high-parameter ultra-supercritical power boilers for coal-fired power generation, superalloy tubes with excellent creep resistance, steam-side oxidation resistance and flue gas-side corrosion resistance are indispensable for superheaters and reheaters.

In gas turbines for gas-fired power generation, turbine blades and guide vanes adopt heat-corrosion resistant superalloys with outstanding high-temperature corrosion resistance and long-term structural stability.

In the nuclear power sector, superalloy tubes with good solution corrosion resistance are selected as heat transfer tubes for steam generators.

Superalloys with excellent resistance to high-temperature thermal corrosion and high-temperature abrasion are widely used in coal gasification, energy conservation and emission reduction fields.

In oil and natural gas exploitation, especially deep well drilling, drilling tools operate in acidic environments at temperatures of 4–150℃, together with the presence of CO₂, H₂S and sediment. Thus, corrosion and wear resistant superalloys are mandatory for such working conditions.

Large power equipment manufacturing groups in China, including Shanghai Electric, Dongfang Electric and Harbin Turbine Company, have achieved substantial improvements in production scale and manufacturing technology in recent years, boosting the demand for turbine disks used in power generation equipment.

Remarkable progress has been made in the localized R&D of a new generation of power generation equipment — large land-based gas turbines (also applicable as marine power). Its mass production will further fuel the demand for superalloys. Meanwhile, the localization of nuclear power equipment will also drive the market demand for domestic superalloys.